REVISED!!! Joyce got surgery & I was back from the hospital & at the hotel by 9!

Okay well I started this post last night & then the internet went out (as happens about every 15 min here & only part of it saved so it's morning now & I will post what I have & try to catch up later.

Today was 2 hours shorter than yesterday & I got back to the hotel just before 9 pm which was SO NICE!!! The BIG news of the day was that Joyce the little girl w/ the burns got surgery todays she was the one who I blogged about on Monday??? (I think it was then the days have all blended together!)

I guess the plastic surgeons talked yesterday sometime & decided thay could do some skin grafting for her...I was super excited when I saw them walk her into the OR mid morning - it was a 3 hour OR case and they did grafts to her scalp & both forearms.  I took care of her in Recovery & we kept her in recovery for 3 hours just because she needed closer monitoring than they could do in the post op area.  They had given her alot of anesthesia in the OR so her pain was well managed & she did really well post op coming out of anesthesia except for some temperature issues - & we even held down her post op pain pain.  She definitely has a long road & likely many more surgeries ahead of her but it is nice to think that we got her started on the road to recovery.  I have to believe that she got a better start w/ the Op Smile surgeons & team than she would have with the local doctors.

Medical care her is WAY different than in the US....first of all they have little to no supplies or equipment available - we have to lock up all our supplies every night so that the hospital staff don't "borrow" them.  Monday I made the mistake of not putting away the gloves that were in the boxes we taped to the ends of the bed & Tues morning when we came in there were no gloves in the boxes....and this morning the alcohol wipes were gone???  It makes no sense cause Op Smile will leave at this local "hospital" most all of our extra consumable supplies (except some of the drugs) but I guess there are some desperate needs.  Also here in Kenya if you have someone in the hospital then you basically take care of them...bring them all their food & wash their clothes, so there are wash buckets & clotheslines outside all the "wards" & the hospital provides the "medical care" & juice or tea. Also this morning when we were setting up the Recovery Room they were doing a C-Section in the one OR room that the hospital is using (we are using the other 3 rooms & have 2 OR tables going in 2 of the larger rooms for a total of 5 tables) but they are all kinda connected. Most of the C-Sections are done in another OR (or Theatre as they call it here) so I am not sure why this one was here..perhaps a tender mercy for this mom.  Anyway in the OR room they were doing the C-Section Delivery in the baby was delivered "blue & limp".  According to one of the Op SMILE OR nurses the Kenyan delivery team all just sort of shook their heads.  She yelled to us in the recovery room & we went in & with some stimulation & a little suction & blow by oxygen the baby perked up in a few minutes - It was a BOY!!!  What we did was just "the basics" in the US & here it was almost advanced care.  All day I wondered if they would have just let that little boy die???

I didn't get to the post op ward until later in the day - so I missed seeing alot of yesterdays patients since the cleft lip patients go home after one day & the cleft palate patients go home after 2 days.  I did get to see a darling little girl we had the other day who had to stay an extra day because of some respiratory problems. We nicknamed her "Miss Kenya" in the recovery room!  When I have them in the recovery room they are drowsy & out of it or crying...by the next day you can see their sweet personalities. I counted all the girl patients on the OR schedule for the next 2 days & went thru all the dresses I have left & then realized I will probably have about 30 extra.  The 2 high school students who are with us are going to an orphanage today so I gave the extra dresses to them & a bunch of bubbles to give out...they say they will take pictures.  The needs here are so vast & I feel like I don't even have a full comprehension of it...especailly those who live in remote villages.

One part of this post that didnt get saved was that at leat a dozen people usually older men have asked me if I have been to the small village not far from here in Nakuru where President Obama was born...another dozen mostly women have told me that he comes from "their tribe" there are abut 42 tribes in Kenya I am told & now this one has gained stature, & still others have asked how I like having their "Native Son" as my President.  They definitely have Obama Fever here he's on T Shirts, Posters & there is even Obama Bubble gum with pictures of him  & his family on the packages. I'm just saying that I know the US Govt did their part to investigate where he was born & decided it was Hawaii but they might want to just come to Kenya and chat with a few people here...